Late run leads Rockets past Celtics

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Kevin Garnett grabbed Kevin McHale for one of those all out KG hugs, the sort that come from his always overflowing emotion.

Many thoughts and many years might have gone through their minds, but as McHale left the floor, visibly emotional, he had something he could happily consider on his way out of town.

The Rockets had faced down the Celtics, the team with which McHale had shared 13 Hall of Fame years, when the Celtics are normally their best, and took them apart down the stretch, pulling away for a 101-89 win that moved them to 8-1 against the Eastern Conference heading to a Toronto-New York back-to-back.

With the Rockets clinging to a shaky five-point lead heading into the final five minutes against a team built to win down the stretch, they manufactured a run to take control of the game.

The run began when the Rockets made the Celtics pay for an uncharacteristic mistake. With the Rockets possessions bogged down 26 feet from the basket, Rajon Rondo went for a steal, came up empty and allowed James Harden to step into a 3-pointer for a 91-83 Rockets lead. Omer Asik tipped in a Harden miss to take the lead to double figures.

Kevin Garnett scored for the Celtics, cutting the lead to 93-85 with 3:43 still left, but Chandler Parsons swiped a Rondo pass and set up Toney Douglas for a corner 3 and an 11-point Rockets lead. When Douglas followed that with a drive to a three-point play, the Rockets led by 14 and Boston coach Doc Rivers cleared his bench.

Douglas had scored eight of his 11 points in the fourth quarter for his sixth-consecutive game scoring in double figures. Parsons, who had thought he would be drafted by the Celtics, had 15 points, nine rebounds and a career-high matching eight assists. And Greg Smith scored 20 in 21 minutes off the bench before Asik finished the game to keep Garnett in check.

The Rockets wasted their early 13-point cushion with a misguided second quarter, but it did demonstrate the correction necessary against the veteran Celtics. The restof the way, they took care of the ball and still ran on every opportunity.

The Rockets had gotten off to the sort of fast start that had so often eluded them when playing top teams, defending well and getting out on the break. Midway through the first quarter, they led by 13 and even after the Celtics got going, the Rockets took a 27-19 lead into the second quarter.

When they went to the bench, however, they became remarkably sloppy on both ends, inviting the Celtics back into the game and struggled to get out of it.

Leading by nine two minutes into the second quarter, the Rockets went five minutes without a bucket, turning it over four times and missing six shots as the Celtics cruised through a 13-0 run. Lin broke up the Boston run with a jumper for his lone field goal of the half, but Pierce sank a jumper and a 3-pointer, giving him a 12-point quarter and Boston a seven-point lead, their largest of the half.

The Rockets got their offense back in gear just before the half, with Lin twice setting up Greg Smith inside and Patterson for a baseline jumper. Smith’s dunk with 30 seconds left in the half cut the Boston lead to 45-43 and gave him 11 points in the half. But Lin missed an open corner 3 for the lead at the buzzer, reminding the Rockets that as close as the game remained that for the them, the half could have been and probably should have been much better.